When Jesus sat with tax collectors, the dinners were private. They were not photo ops for political candidates. The Lord could speak directly to the hearts of his dining companions, and convert them. Remember, St. Matthew left the tax-collecting business to follow Christ. Does anyone believe that after the Al Smith dinner, Obama will decide to rescind the contraceptive mandate?

The annual fundraiser for Catholic Charities in New York is a non-partisan event, the organizers assure us; politics will play no part in the nights events. Non-partisan it may be, but not apolitical. There are no apolitical public events on the schedule of a presidential candidate during the last few weeks of a campaign. Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama will attend because they expect to gain some political advantage. They know exactly what theyre doing. Can the same be said for the host, Cardinal Dolan?

During the dinner, the Cardinal and Obama and Romney will laugh and joke together. (The cardinal will be the star of the show, because unlike the other two men, he has a detectible sense of humor.) All good fun. But is it really harmless?

On the morning after the dinner, millions of Americans will see, prominently displayed on the front pages of their hometown newspapers, pictures of President Obama and Cardinal Dolan smiling together. What message will they receive? Can these be the same men who are fighting a bitter political battle on a matter of conscience? The same two men who are the principal forces behind opposite sides of a landmark lawsuit? If theyre laughing and back-slapping together, the disagreement cant be all that serious, can it? So maybe that matter of conscience isnt so important after all? Apparently it wasnt important enough to interfere with a night of fun.

In attendance at the dinner, appropriately clad in white ties, will be corporate executives who have donated large sums to the Obama campaign. The Catholic bishops of the USCardinal Dolan prominently among themhave repeatedly told the faithful that it is gravely wrong to support political candidates who promote unrestricted legal abortion, euthanasia, and same-sex marriage. Yet Catholics continue to support Obama, disregarding the bishops warnings. When they see Cardinal Dolan arm-in-arm with a President whose administration has done so much to advance the culture of death, will they be more or less likely to take the bishops seriously?

Cardinal Dolan may be the most gregarious man I have ever met. He seems quite genuinely to take delight in the presence of everyone he meets. Thats a quality that I admire: an enormous strength of his character. However, a man who habitually thinks the best of everyone can fail to pick up on the telltale signs of enmity. Cardinal Dolan seemed genuinely surprised that after promising to accommodate the consciences of Catholics regarding the HHS mandate, Obama did nothing of the sort. Call me a cynic if you want, but I wasnt surprised.

During the past several months Cardinal Dolan has proven remarkably tough in his statements regarding the mandate and feisty in his willingness to do political battle with the White House. Yet now, in the thick of that battleand, not coincidentally, of the presidential campaignhe has offered a temporary truce. Is he making a calculated gesture, as part of some Machiavellian plan? Id like to think so. But the cynic in me fears that the cardinal has slipped back into the naïve belief that political disagreements can be put aside for an evening of joking and backslapping without any adverse consequences. And on political affairs, sad to say, the cynic in me is almost always right.

For 50 years, it has been New York's most prestigious nonpolitical political event. And since John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon took off their campaign gloves to attend the glittering dinner three weeks before the 1960 presidential election, most candidates for the nation's highest office have made the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner a mandatory stop on the road to the White House.

But not this year.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has not invited President Clinton or his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, to its $600-a-plate annual charity dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel next month. It is the first Presidential election year since 1960 that the archdiocese has not invited the Democratic and Republican candidates. And there are conflicting explanations.

The dinner's organizers said that the candidates were unable to make firm commitments to attend, and so were not invited. But other archdiocesan officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the exclusion stemmed from John Cardinal O'Connor's annoyance at President Clinton's veto of a bill that would have outlawed certain late-term abortions. They added that Mr. Dole was not invited to keep the dinner from taking on a partisan tone.

Not sure how private Jesus’ dining with sinners is, or was intended to be. It’s only been published in the Gospels for 2,000+ years, not to mention His stark words regarding whores and thieves entering the Kingdom of Heaven ahead of the self-righteous.

It is not a laughing matter to keep personal company with The Most High under any circumstances, at least in this life. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. The lost can be found in DC as much as anywhere else.

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